I Didn't Know He Was THAT Old
by Tayla Lider
Summary: A pair of challenges issued by ghostanimal are combined into one very-interesting and hopefully-unique tale. Between D-Stablized and Phantom Planet. Poor Danny has to set something straight after something that is noticed during History class... One-shot #2 added: Is Dash seeing things?
1. I Didn't Know He Was THAT Old

Now, I mentioned there are two challenges that led to this story. Allow me to introduce them.

**The Challenge: History references Infinite Realms in some way**

Walker. Here are the rules punks. Maybe somebody's grandpa was that little kid with the misquoting mom. Maybe they study the shortest reign of an emperor ever, who was Plasmius. NO REVEAL

**The Challenge: Lancer has a conversation with Danny Phantom**

Walker: Here are the rules punks. He CANNOT be exposed

I definitely don't own Danny Phantom. As much as I would like to, I don't believe I could maintain the inspiration that lies behind it. There is one quote that I did a swipe from Wikipedia for use in this tale as well.

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Now, let the story begin...

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**I Didn't Know He Was _THAT_ Old**

History was normally a subject in school that put a lot of students into a form of slumber in Casper High, especially when it was taught by the bald, plump teacher known as Mr. Lancer, who tended to have a drone-like tone in his voice when he spoke.

However, in regards to the topic being taught that day, certain students were a little more awake than normal, though for their own reasons.

"After someone concluded that a loss, illness or death had been caused by witchcraft, the accuser would enter a complaint against the alleged witch with the local magistrates. If the complaint was deemed credible, the magistrates had the person arrested and brought in for a public examination, essentially an interrogation, where the magistrates..."

"...should have given her the chance to at least defend herself," one student rather-faintly muttered darkly to himself near the front of the class at one point during the teacher's lecture. While no one else seemed to have heard his words, Mr. Lancer did catch it and glanced away from the chalkboard he had been making an outline of sorts on without interrupting his own words and speech toward the source of the minor outburst.

One student, a black-haired, blue-eyed student named Danny Fenton, had an extremely-angered look in his eyes, one that he could have sworn was a radioactive-green for a split second. Raising an eyebrow at this peculiarity, he took a quick scan of the class he was trying to teach. While most of the students indeed had their heads firmly reacquainted with their desks, he had noticed that two other students were shivering as if something related had mentally scarred them and one more had a rather-creepy look on her face. Mr. Lancer almost wondering if she was mentally torturing someone in her head, which was enough for a minor flinch, before turning back around toward the blackboard.

"Mr. Lancer?" The voice came after he had heard the sound of a page being turned and a slight gasp had escaped from her mouth.

Turning full around this time to face the student in question, a hispanic girl with skin that had been expertly cared for often that had once on her face the look that he wished would now leave his memory.

"Yes, Ms. Sanchez?" She carefully lifted up her textbook at the bottom in an attempt to keep it open, she pointed toward one of the sketches of the supposed 'effects of witchcraft', which showed a rather-familiar black and white being flying toward something out of view. The picture had a small paragraph under it explaining that witches would often be said to have demonic servants that aided in this task, with the being in the picture being a drawing of one that had been seen.

"Is that Danny Phantom?"

Everyone that was asleep woke up and joined in with everyone else that was turning toward the page and picture in question. Among the gasps that were heard, one head found itself becoming one with his desk in a painful manner, eyes closed from the world in out-of-place annoyance. He could have sworn he heard a colorful word from the student's mouth, but since it was so faint, the teacher didn't call attention to it.

Even Mr. Lancer had decided to turn to the picture everyone else had caught attention on and allowed his jaw to drop a little.

"_The Witcher_, I didn't know he was THAT old..."

It was to Mr. Lancer's relief, for once, that the bell rang to signal the end of the class and the end of the school day, stunned silence preventing him from giving an assignment as he would normally do. What he didn't realize was that another was relieved to be out of there as well...

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Mr. Lancer just knew that Danny Phantom, the town's spectral defender, had found out about that scene in the class. He wasn't sure how, but an idea had been forming in his head. If it turned out true, he would scold the ghost for it when he had the chance. The bald teacher was almost expecting a visit from him as the elder sat on a park bench alone, for once not having any more papers to grade. He felt a sudden drop in temperature, which made the Spring night a little more nippy than normal, before turning toward where the sudden burst of cold came from.

"Daniel Phantom?" The teacher didn't jump as a teenaged ghost appeared to fade into view, his pitch-black jumpsuit covering almost all but his head. His gloves, boots, belt, hair and the glow that surrounded him were all a pearl-white color and his radioactive-green eyes looking at the man with a bit of confusion and a white eyebrow raised high.

"You were expecting me?" The ghost asked, an echo notable in his voice as he did. There was a tone of shock in his voice as well, something the teacher had noticed the few times he had been around for a fight that the boy had been part of. Mr. Lancer took a second to clear his throat.

"One, I would appreciate some sort of warning from you before deciding to overshadow one of my students if you wish to join in a class conversation, Mr. Phantom, and especially before using one of my students as a way to visually express your opinion on something." As he spoke, Mr. Lancer adopted a scolding tone he would often use on some of his students, which caused a reaction he would have expected from a student, instead of a ghost. Phantom's eyes had widened, as if he had been a deer caught in a set of headlights, panic shimmering in them.

"Wh...why...?" Phantom's stuttering found itself interrupted by Lancer raising his hand up, signalling for the ghost to cease his words. He made a mental note to continue acting the familiar role of teacher around this ghost in hopes that maybe there was a way for the two to interact peacefully, despite all the hostility Mr. and Mrs. Fenton claim he is capable of and responsible for.

"I saw your eyes over Mr. Fenton's when I caught something you said. While it was a relief to actually see him awake for once in my class, I know that had to be you. It's possible you've also given him quite the headache from that thump on the desk as well." Lancer raised an eyebrow as he spotted the teen move from standing with his boots firmly on the ground to sitting cross-legged in the air levitating before rubbing his hand behind his neck, a nervous twitch he's noticed in one student. "And I'm guessing it's not the first time you've done it either, if you picked up that habit."

Phantom stopped with the motion before slowly placing the offending hand on his knee, still floating cross-legged in the air.

"Um..." Realizing that the spirit had nothing to say on that since he had been caught red-handed, Mr. Lancer scooted over more toward one side of the bench before patting the area beside him, an offer to sit down with him. With a muffled gulp did Phantom oblige, floating over toward the bench before softly landing on it, uncrossing his legs just before he did.

"But that's not what I was hoping to see you about." At this point did the teacher pull out a paper, which he unfolded to reveal a picture that had been photocopied from a textbook. A picture that showed Danny Phantom flying toward something unseen. "I was hoping you can explain this. I am curious as to how a ghost that looked like he died in modern times was able to appear in the year 1692."

The ghost looked down toward his feet, kicking out his feet a little as he did in thought. "I had no idea that was going to happen..."

"That what was going to happen?" Lancer spoke when he realized the teen wasn't going to finish that statement. He was getting curious, there was much about this ghost that had his own interest, even if he wasn't a ghost hunter like a certain pair in the town.

Letting out a sigh in disbelief, the boy finally looked up toward the elder, his green eyes slightly dimmed. "First of all, the Ghost Portal that the Fentons have is not the only portal to the Ghost Zone. There are many natural ones that open up as well, a rather-famous one being the Bermuda Triangle. What most don't know is that these portals not only open up to different places, but sometimes to different time periods as well."

Now Lancer was the one who found himself with widened eyes as the thought of the possibility of actually seeing certain past events for himself with his own eyes crossed his mind. While an amusing thought to follow, that wasn't one he needed to focus on. "I'm going to guess that you wound up going to a portal that led there?" His answer came in the form of a nod from Phantom, his hair hiding his eyes for a brief moment as he did, before looking down in thought.

"Yeah, I was...admittedly running from...another ghost that's been wanting to skin me alive for the longest time when it happened." Lancer couldn't help but wince at the image that came across his mind unbidden at those words, even if they sounded somewhat fabricated at the moment. "Trust me, it grosses me out, too. Anyway, I saw someone that had just been captured and immediately declared a witch, no trial or anything, and was being tied up to the stake to be burned." Phantom appeared to be trying to hold back a shudder, though he had obviously failed to hide the tone in his voice that was started to get dark. "I knew it was wrong and had instinctively flew toward to try and save her but I was mistaken for a demon...of all things...and had a blood blossom thrown in my face by a Fenton ancestor."

"Blood blossom?" Now Mr. Lancer was the one that found himself interrupting the ghost, when he had not long ago scolded Phantom for doing the same earlier during his class. "And a FENTON ancestor?"

"In order: Blood Blossoms are natural anti-ghost plants and really hurt any ghost that is even near them, let alone touch them and I took one to the face. John announced his full name and looked way too much like Jack Fenton to not be related somehow." Clearing his throat a bit to get rid of the darkened voicing he had adopted for a moment, Phantom looked up toward the sky. "I don't remember how I got out of there, honestly. My luck, a portal opened up under my feet and saved me by launching me back into the Ghost Zone. I certainly wasn't able to move from that level of pain on my own..."

Lancer had nothing to say. While he would admit that the ghostly glow around the boy would be unsettling to someone seeing it for the first time, he severely doubted that Phantom could be mistaken for something as horrible as a demon. He placed a hand on the kid's cold shoulder, whom looked back down toward the elder.

"I can certainly say you are no such thing, Phantom. You seem to act more like an imperfect angel than any sort of demon." A small laugh and a slight smile appeared from the kid, almost a silent way of thanking the teacher for the compliment.

"I just wish others would see that, too." At that point, Phantom stood up and pushed against his back with his hands, creating a slight popping sound in the process. "I think I better get going, not a good idea for me to be in any one place for long." Before anything else could be said, the kid jumped up and flew high into the air, flying high enough to appear as a star in the sky himself.

"It makes me glad to see that someone actually wants to pay attention to my classes at times, even if they are a ghost," Lancer couldn't help but smile at the thought. Maybe there was a way to allow him into some conversations without recoil...


	2. Incident in PE

**Incident in PE**

White shirt, red shorts. Dash was ready to dominate the gym as he usually did in PE as he walked out the locker room, a grin appearing on his face at the thought of the one class where he could pound nerds in public view without consequence.

How he could do such things depended on what was happening during PE, but he didn't mind that. He had no problems with _accidentally_ slamming a basketball on someone's head after a slam dunk, or _mistakenly_ hitting another in the back with a _poorly-aimed_ football. However, that day's activity had the football player almost grinning from ear to ear.

Dodgeball, a game where you had to purposely hit someone else with the ball you are throwing to knock someone out of the ga-wait.

Why was _he_ grinning, too? And was that a flash of green, or was Dash seeing things?

"Alright, kids," Dash heard before turning to face the PE teacher, the muscularly-large woman known as Ms. Teslaff. "Baxter, Fenton. You two are team captains. Pick your teammates and we'll get this show on the road. " Dash dared to take a peek back toward his _rival_ captain, at Fenton and his eyes. They were definately blue, the bully didn't know how he could have mistaken them for that bright a green. The scrawny kid was stepping up from his cross-legged position on the ground before moving up along side the large football player, a look of nervousness on his face.

Just as he should have.

"Kwan," Dash called out to begin the team selection.

"Sam," Danny responded, which Dash found predictable.

"Nathan," Dash spoke next, beginning already to collect his meat shields for himself and his buddy.

"Tucker," Danny announced next, just as Dash predicted.

"Lester."

"Valerie." This one made Dash momentarily double-take before mentally grinning wildly. With both Sam and Valerie on the same team, they were more-likely to take each other out than anyone else.

The exchange of names continue before the class was split evenly, ten vs ten. Five balls were placed along the line in the center of the gym, one of them dead center.

"Alright, you know the rules. You're hit, you're out. Catching a ball before it hits the ground knocks out the person who threw it. A ball in hand can be used to knock away another ball without being knocked out. Begin!" With the echo of the whistle did the madness that was dodgeball began.

Dash and Kwan had managed to get a ball each while Sam and Valerie got one each before Sam kicked the final ball in the center toward Tucker, who tossed the ball to Danny. After ten minutes of exchanges, impacts and captures, the two sides were reduced to only a few on each side.

Dash and Kwan on one side. Danny, Sam and Valerie on the other. Throughout the game, the two girls had been keeping tabs on who got more knockouts than the other, which had managed to keep the pair from ripping each other up. Danny couldn't help but feel his luck might have improved somehow, until he heard a pair of yelps from behind him.

Sam and Valerie had been tagged out in unison and at a tie with each other.

Dash saw that Danny had said something under his breath, but didn't care as both he and Kwan each picked up one of three balls on their side. They both looked at Danny with a menecing smile on their faces, putting the scrawny kid instantly on edge. If the jock didn't know better, he'd swear the loser was getting ready to fight for his life or something with the way he stood.

Well, it's a good thing Dash did know better. And with out a second thought did the pair toss the pair of balls in unison. Danny had been in a corner trying to get a ball when the white spheres were thrown, giving the kid only one way to get out of the way.

His eyes allowed to momentarily flash as adrenaline hit a fever pitch, the lightweight kid kicked up high into the air, flipping forward and over the incoming projectiles. As soon as he landed the the green glow fade away, all five orbs now on the same side of the gym.

Dash was stunned by the display as was his buddy. However, he was stunned by a thought was floated by his mind when the strange green registered as something familiar.

Danny Phantom's radioactive-green eyes.

Was the ghost boy really helping Fenton? Why?

Something tells him a simple pounding wouldn't give him the answer to that question...


End file.
